"One word of truth outweighs the whole world."-
Russian proverb
Sessions: Tuesday/Thursday
9:30 - 10:45, Harris Hall 445
Office Hours :
MW 10 - 11, 12 - 2, T/Thr 11 - 12:30, F 10 - 11
Office Email:
Student email will be responded to within 24 hours
Texts: Haper
Collins Study Bible
Understanding the Bible (5th edition), Harris
World-wide web sites for both assigned and free reading
Original web page: http://webpages.marshall.edu/~altany/rst320-0101.htm
Class type/size: undergrad/discussion; 30
students/2000Hours of Instruction: 2 1/2 hours/week over 15 weeks
Pedagogical Reflections
Religious
Studies is an academic discipline in which the phenomenon
of religion in human experience is studied in a
nonsectarian, unbiased manner
using various kinds of historical-critical, analytical, comparative, phenomenological,
interdisciplinary methodologies.
Discussion should be conducted with honesty, enthusiasm, kindness, critical
thought
and respect for the worldviews
and beliefs of others. This course is not only for learning, but is itself
to be a model for how
to learn, why to learn,
and to learn to love to learn.
Course_Description
Course_Objectives
Computing
in this Course
Attendance
Policy
Drop
Policy
Course
Evaluation
Semester
Schedule
Selections from the textbook
and from the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament will be read from
different
historical periods and from
a variety of literary forms. The literature will be critically examined
for how it
interprets the meaning of
God, the cosmos, humanity, history, morality, justice, suffering, revelation,
the
sacred and what the texts
disclose about the intentions of the authors and the nature of the cultures
and
communities in which they
were written. In addition, the writings will be studied for their
characteristics
and features as literature,
as religious stories with characters, plot, conflict, symbols, metaphor
and
various literary devices.
This course is a reading,
discussion and writing oriented course. On-line writing
resources are available. All
writings are to be completely
the work of the individual or the group doing the writing, thus avoiding
all plagiarism.
Through the media of telecomputing
we will be able to have a semester-long contemplative focus upon the writings,
interpretation and evaluation
of those writings, and upon our own thinking and thinking about our thinking.
The goal
is not simply the accumulation
of information, but the growing into wisdom with the help of the writers,
cultures
and religious traditions
we will encounter and engage.
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Course
Objectives
The goals of this course
include the following:
The educational use of telecomputing
will facilitate ongoing asynchronous discussion, submission and revision
of student
writings, peer review of
student writings, collaborative group writings and projects, individual
communication with the
professor, or among students,
and publication of an electronic course journal with student contributions.
Telecomputing
tutorials are available as is guidance on how to engage
in respectful communication on the Internet
(netiquette).
In using web sources, please refer to documenting
sources from the World Wide Web.
The purposes of the using of computer technology in this study are as follows:
Attendance
Policy
Attendance at every class
is expected and necessary to best benefit the act and art of learning through
the discussion
and writing orientation
of this course on a very complex subject. Anyone not willing to be
responsible for attending all
classes and for fully participating
in all discussions is advised not to take this course.
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Drop Policy
The official withdrawal
policy is observed where the withdrawal ("W") period for an individual
course begins
August 28th and ends October
27th.
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Course
Evaluation
Discussion List & Selected Writings
- 40%
Group Project
- 20%
Final Essay
- 40%
*
Voluntary
participation in the writing, editing & publishing of issue of the
course journal is available
All writings need to be
received on time (allowing for computer system outages) for full evaluation.
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"Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established,
that, unless we love the truth, we canot know it." - Pascal